ACCORDING TO RICHARD GIRAGOSIAN, TODAY ARMENIA IS WEAKER THAN EVER AND IS PRESENTED TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY JUST THAT WAY

Noyan Tapan
July 22, 2009

YEREVAN, JULY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The meetings of the Armenian and Azeri
Presidents held on July 18-19 in Moscow were, of course, important
and memorable, however, in spite of the renewed foreign pressure in
the issue of Nagorno Karabakh settlement, it was obvious from the
very start that no real change is expected. Richard Giragosian, the
Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies
(ACNIS), expressed such an opinion on July 21 at the Hayatsk club.

In his words, not Madrid Principles’ being the basis of the
negotiations process is alarming, Madrid Principles also contain
points beneficial for Armenia. According to R. Giragosian, it is
much more alarming that today Armenia is weaker than ever and is
presented to the international community just that way. He explained
it by the circumstance that the Armenian authorities have a problem of
legitimacy and society is polarized in consequence of the political
crisis. R. Giragosian considers that Armenia should be stronger to
keep away from possible pressures in the negotiations process.

It was also mentioned that real danger threatens Armenia rather from
"friends’ betrayal," in particular, from a change of the Russian
foreign policy and not from Azerbaijan, the authorities of which have
again returned to threats of war.

In R. Giragosian’s affirmation, the Nagorno Karabakh problem cannot
be solved without participation of one of the conflict sides, NKR,
therefore in the negotiations process "Armenia should not reserve for
itself the monopoly of representing the NKR authorities elected on the
basis of democratic principles." In his words, the OSCE Minsk Group
has failed the peace process first of all because it did not involve
NKR as a side of the negotiations process enjoying full rights. The
other reason of the failure is the closed, non-public nature of the
negotiations process, which makes impossible involvement of the civil
society and results in misinformation. The ACNIS Director also gave
assurance that MG also realizes very well that any attempt to return
NKR under Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction will inevitably result in a war.